I recently started to get attached with japanese culture and I have been craving for some good japanese dramas but I didn't know where to start... I have been watching JIN (time travel, historical) and I was looking for some other historical but with a girl as the main protagonist. 

Can you guys please help me? Thank you ^^

For a serious historical drama, I enjoyed Ri Kouran.  It's  based on the true story of Yamaguchi Yoshiko, a Japanese woman born in Manchuria during the Japanese occupation, who became famous as a Chinese singer and actress under the name Li Xianglan and played a huge part in the Japanese propaganda at the time. I had never heard about her before watching this special and found it super interesting!

As for a light-hearted and cute historical drama, Ashi Girl  is another drama I enjoyed  a lot. It's really entertaining and cute! 

If you don't mind long historical dramas (50 episodes), I highly recommend Atsuhime and Yae no Sakura.

@OldAnimeLady I found your lists interesting and just bookmarked your page in case I might feel the need to watch other japanese dramas :)

@Arega Thanks for recommending (almost all of them caught my attention)^^

@Pyapi I couldn't find Ri Kouran anywhere, but I still got my eyes on Ashi Girl :D

@kura2ninja Thanks for recommending long dramas (I don't mind long dramas as long as they're entertaining) and they both interest me so I might give them a try ;)

@TKoar I watched it on Dailymotion

@Pyapi Thanks for the link!

You're welcome!

Btw, the two long dramas kura2ninja mentioned are Taiga dramas. They are annual historical dramas produced by NHK and are all around 50 episodes long, there are many taiga dramas since NHK has been doing this every year for a long, long time! There is a tag exclusively for them on MDL: Taiga.

I haven't seen any of them yet because I'm intimidated by the length and the older/archaic Japanese (I study the language and use dramas as practice) but I have heard many great things about them. I've had my eye on Atsuhime and Yae no Sakura for a while now ^^

I have heard before of taiga dramas but never took the time to watch them... but now that I'm in the mood for historical japanese dramas, they're just perfect. If they're entertaining enough the length is actually a good thing since you'll get to see it longer! lol

The taiga tag is going to be so helpful now :)

  • Sanadamaru 
  • Yae no Sakura
  • Taira no Kiyomori
  • Ryoma Den
  • Tenchijin
  • Fuurin Kazan
  • Atsu Hime
  • Sego-don